Heirloom Expo

In September, the older girls and I (and baby) went to the National Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa – about an hour north of San Francisco.  I had it penciled onto my calendar for awhile, but because it was in the middle of the week and so far away...I had to think about it.  I made the final decision that morning.
 
We were so glad we went!  We had a nice time of (uninterrupted!) girl conversation on the way.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, as was the scenery.
 
The Expo is centered around the pure food movement, heirloom vegetables, and anti-GMO activism.  While my garden is pitiful, I love gardening and have a great desire to be able to provide food for my family this way.

Chickens and lambs hanging out together.

Girls with Shoshanna Pearl Easling

One of the highlights for us was hearing and meeting Shoshanna Easling from the Bulk Herb Store.

They have a very informative and helpful website. (I highly recommend their Mama's Milk Tea!  I have been drinking it religiously since the day I gave birth to Keoni. At 7.5 months he is still exclusively breastfed and that big boy is doing great!)

Shoshanna demonstrated how easy it is to incorporate herbs into your everyday life and everyday eating.  From salad dressings to medicinal salves to baby food...it was really fabulous.  If only we were guaranteed the herbs would give us the energy level that Shoshanna has!  

She was very personable, and so kind to the girls.  When Kainoa asked her what top things she would recommend to have on hand, some things she mentioned were peppermint (tummy aches), bentonite clay, plantain (bug bites/stings).  The girls and I were very inspired to start a serious herb garden.  Check out their website at the Bulk Herb Store.

There were some fabulously creative uses of recycled materials

Last minute Garden attempt

We are so behind in getting the garden going this year!  I think because of having a baby in March, I took the pressure off of myself and was okay with not doing a garden this year.  Then, I got the bee in my bonnet, and had to make something happen.

Our poor garden was truly abandoned after last season.  We did no post season care.  We had a big mess to clean up, but it was so good to get everybody out there ‘working hard!’

It took a few days to clean it up, and even longer to get everything planted. 

Nursing baby in the shade (hiding to the right)

Situating Keoni in the middle of it all

Finally got boxes cleared out

The princess on her banana break

Great Expectations

Keith and I are thrilled to be expecting baby #7.  This was a wonderful surprise! I am due the day before my birthday in March.  Thankfully, I have finally rounded the corner of first trimester nausea and exhaustion.  Although I am ‘over the hill’ and considered high risk, Keith and I are so grateful that the Lord would bless us this way.  We are so excited to meet this newest little one!

Kaleo (16) and Kainoa (10)

It has been a wonderful blessing to see both of our oldest girls step up into roles of greater responsibilities, because I was falling asleep at the drop of a hat!  We are grateful that they love to cook and bake.  All the time of having them in the kitchen with me has paid off!


They can handle all the meals.  Some favorite breakfasts they make are pancakes, toad in a hole, and apple turnovers.  Some favorite dinners are taco casserole, lots of different pasta dishes,  and  homemade soups.


We have been thoroughly enjoying the girls latest endeavor.  Last fall we made apple pie filling and canned it up. Recently, inspired by a pie contest at church, the girls decided to attempt to make an apple pie from scratch using our homemade filling.  

The girls got up at the crack of dawn ( I suppose so as not to have any little ones distracting) and got busy. I have never made a pie crust from scratch, so they had no frame of reference.  Well, the rest of the family finally awoke to the most wonderful smell of freshly baked apple pie!  It was delicious!  And they made two more that week!
 

Mmmmmm!

U - pick 'em

Gorgeous setting!

On our way home from the tide pools, we stopped to pick some fresh organic strawberries.  The weather broke, so it was just gorgeous!  

Kawika (2) and Kainoa (10)

Everyone pitched in and had a good time.  Each child had their own box and was proud of what they picked. 

Kaleo (16) with the boys in the backround

Kili (4)

Kapena (5) was so proud of his 'beauties' as we were calling them

Keith preferred to supervise rather than pick

It made me feel better about the dismal harvest we had from our own strawberry plants.  There was no way I was making jam from what little our plants produced (granted, little ones nibbling here and there didn't help.)  But I could see here that there were not many strawberries on any one plant.  There was one, maybe two.  Seems you need a lot of plants to get a lot of strawberries.  On this day we made off with about 14lbs.

 

Fruit (Veggies?) of our labor

We didn't plant this beautiful apple tree.
This is a well established tree that just needed a little TLC.

This was our first year to do a vegetable garden.  It has been a lot of work, but so enjoyable.  The kids have all helped, and are thrilled to see everything growing.  

Kawika (2) usually wanders down to the garden by himself, just after getting up from his nap, to find me.  And each day we spend time.....him pointing to each plant and saying, ‘What is it, Mom?’  And we go through them all...again...it is a blessing!  

Miss Kili (4) likes to give her own tours of the garden...Kapena (5) is constantly on the hunt for lizards....Koa (8) helps me with watering and heavy lifting.....

Kainoa (10) and Kaleo (16) are my biggest helpers.  We laugh that these plants are like our babies!  I don’t have a green thumb, but I am determined to learn how to grow some healthy organic fruits and veggies for my family.  It has been a great learning experience for us all.

We are thrilled to start to see some of the fruit (veggies!) of our labor....

Romaine lettuce.  The white powder you'll see sprinkled on a few
of these plants is DE (Diatomaceous Earth).
DE is all around amazing.
Here I used it to fight unwanted bugs. 

Mixed lettuces we have been enjoying in our salads

Pickling cucumbers

We've got green, red, orange, and golden peppers going.

Thrilled to see these babies appear!  We have 15 different kinds of
tomato plants growing.  Most were beautiful starts
from Bill Bowman. Thank you!

We are going to be up to our ears in zucchini!
People are curious to hear that I am training them up.
It's a space issue.

These sugar peas are starting to fatten up...and they are getting 
eatin' up by the kiddos!

The temptation to pull these carrots
has been making the kids crazy for awhile now.

Cucumbers - also being trained up.

Kainoa comes down to the garden most early mornings -
often she'll do her devotions here.

Sugar daddy peas -
yummmmmmmmmm!

Attempting to contain the strong, huge,
pokey leaves of the zucchinis.

Tomato central